Watch The Throne

by Glitch | 8/12/11

9.4

ARTIST INFO

Well, I have this little theory. Which is that people throughout the centuries... love intelligent and genius word play, rhymes, and the very best popular poetry of the day... whatever century we're in. It doesn't matter if it's Shakespeare, Charles Bukowski, or Jay Z and Kanye West. As humans... (those of us that have a brain), well we just eat it up. Now I don't know if Shakespeare was 'balling' in the most finest horse drawn coach substituting for a Maybach ... but just maybe (and probably likely) those wordsmiths were rock stars and renegades of their time. Certainly Bukowski was.

Ok enough of that philosophizing.

"Watch The Throne" is one of the pure artistic genius highlights of 2011. 2011... which so far is pretty limited on the amazing album side. James Blake is on that list. 'The M Machine' (not yet signed to a label) is on that list. Givers is on that list. Not sure what else though is totally mind blowing. Feel free to comment and start a dialogue.

The highlights on "Watch The Throne" are not just numerous but also Grammy Award winning (not that that award means anything anymore). But let's start with "No Church In The Wild (feat Frank Ocean)," which I think might emerge as one of the key songs from the album. Pretty huge and amazing lyric with "Human Being To The Mob / What's A Mob To A King / What's a King to a God / What's A God To A Non Believer / Who Don't Believe In Anything." Wow. Kanye just rips (notice I don't say "spits" anywhere in this review because it would just sound corny) the lines of the year: "Coke on her black skin made a stripe like a Zebra / I call that Jungle Fever."

Moving on to other solid tracks featuring Beyonce, Mr. Hudson, Frank Ocean and Otis Redding via a sample, it's clear on this album that all rappers (except Eminem) are going to be "watching the throne."

Another amazing song "Murder to Excellence" becomes a tribute to Danroy Henry, a star athlete in high school who was killed by police. The lines that Jay and Kayne lay down are flawless and untouchable: "I'm from the murder capital / Where they Murder for Capital" "314 Soldiers died in Iraq / 509 died in Chicago"

And then there's "Who's Gon Stop Me" ... which overall shines with Jay Z's jam. Some of the hot Jay lines (especially how he lays them down with a little flow like Michael Jackson or James Brown): "2 seats in the 911 / No limit on the Black Card / Told yall I was gonna go HAM / To the ocean was my backyard / No lies in my verses / Please pardon all the curses / Sh*t gotta come some way / F**k, when you growing up worthless."

Lastly, let's talk about Art. No, not the guy who makes my pastrami sandwiches. Artistic vision. K&J are just doing everything right. There's a real aesthetic here... it's smart, it's classic and provoking... and provides fans with even more ammunition to love them even more. How's that? Because Kanye and Jay-Z (say what you want about Kanye) but they respect their listeners and know what we exactly want. And we want the high brow stuff.

Bottom line: Get your hands on this album and try to raise your own level of excellence... whatever you do in life... to the excellence Kanye and Jay - Z have achieved.

p.s. Surprisingly or not there are not too many mentions about their (and others) dicks. We'll leave that to Eminem.

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